Texas Sen. Ted Cruz offered an extended defense Thursday of his support for ending bulk data collection even as the threat of terrorism surges.
In a lengthy policy speech at a conservative think tank, Cruz tried to rebut Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s forceful argument that Cruz’s votes to end aspects of the National Security Agency’s data collection program should raise red flags for voters concerned about national security. Cruz has tried to stake out a compromise position between the muscular interventionism of Rubio and the surveillance-skeptical libertarianism of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, both GOP presidential competitors.
“There are some on both the right and the left who want to exploit the current crisis by calling on Americans to surrender our constitutional liberties as the only way to ensure our safety,” Cruz said in a rare behind-the-lectern speech at the Heritage Foundation.
Rubio has specifically targeted Cruz for his vote earlier this year on the USA Freedom Act, which curtailed part of the Patriot Act’s data collection powers. Cruz has said that Rubio’s attacks are politically motivated.
“More data from millions of law-abiding Americans is not always better data,” Cruz said.
A growing chorus of Republican candidates has begun to criticize Cruz for his votes, including outside groups allied with both Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Cruz, who escaped major attacks for the first seven months of his campaign, is now battling daily barbs from much of the Republican world since he is second in many polls.
Rubio has been the most vocal, and his campaign now sends nearly daily emails to reporters highlighting what they see as inconsistencies in Cruz’s record on terrorism, including on Thursday morning. Cruz does not currently support sending American troops to combat Islamic extremism, which Rubio has been considerably more open to.
And Cruz has said candidates like Rubio are too willing to send Americans into conflict — though Rubio escaped a by-name mention on Thursday.
“Some, in the course of a political campaign, have focused on boots on the ground,” Cruz said.
The Texas senator has labeled Rubio a neoconservative who is too eager to risk regional stability for ill-fated attempts at democracy. Listing off a series of foreign dictators who the U.S. helped topple — some of the ousters supported by Rubio — Cruz on Thursday tried to draw a contrast with that interventionist brand of Republicanism. He sees that as having a failed track record.
“We do not betray the idea of America by accepting reality,” Cruz said. “History is a better guide than good intentions.”